
Rnnk ^'/ t 



/ 



THE 



SOURCES OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 






THEIR DISCOVERERS, REAL AND 
PRETENDED. 



A REPORT, 

BY 

HON. JAMES H. BAKER, 

Read before the Minnesota Historical Society, 
February 8, 1887. 



MINNESOTA HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS, 
VOL. VI. part I. 



SAINT PAUL, MINN. 

:y & C 

1887. 




Brown, Treacy & Co., Printers, *•, ^. S.o*^ ~ 

1 OOT •»««■*•* 



In Sxoh> 






THE 



SOURCES OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 



THEIR DISCOVERERS, REAL AND PRETENDED. 



A Report, by Hon. James H. Baker, read before the 
Minnesota Historical Society, Feb. 8, 1887. 



In pursuance of a resolution of the Minnesota Historical 
Society, dated Dec. 13, 1886, your committee herewith 
present a summary of their investigations and conclusions, 
touching the validity of any and all claims to the discovery 
of the head waters of the Mississippi river, together with a 
determination of what waters constitute the true and ulti- 
mate sources. 

Your committee have faithfully and laboriously read all 
letters, documents, journals and books, and consulted all 
maps obtainable,* which shed any light upon the questions 

* Books, Letters, and Documents Consulted : Letter of William Morrison 
to Hon. Alex. Ramsey, Feb. 17, 185(), in Minnesota Historical Society's Collec- 
tions, vol. 1, p 417. Schoolcraft's narratives of the expedition to the source of 
the Mississippi, ISUO and 1882. Report of Jean N.. Nicollet, to accompany his 
map of the hydro^raphical basin of the upper Mississippi river, 1845. Charles 
Lanman's Canoe Voyage up the Mississippi. .Julius Chambers' letters in the New 
York Herald, 1872. O. E. Garrison's report for the tenth census of the U. S. 
Rev. J. A. Gilfillan's trip to Itasca, 1881. The United States Surveyor General's 
map and field notes, 1x70. Letter from Ivisou, Blakeman, Taylor & Co. in 
" Science," Dee. 24, 1886. Owen's " Sword and Pen," Phila., 18f-4. Capt. Glazier 
and his lake, by Henry D. Harrower, of N. Y. Ninth annual report of the 
Geological and Natural History Survey of Minnesota, 1880. American Meteoro- 
logical .Tournal, 1884. Report by Hopewell Clarke, C. E., of a survey of the 
alHuents of Itasca, etc. 

Maps Consulted: Map of Nicollet, attached to his report, 1845. Military 
map of Nebraska and Dakota, by Gen. G. K. Warren, 1855. Official map of 
Minnesota, 1858. Land office surveys of 1875. Map of Glazier's explora- 
tions, etc. 



MINNKSOl'A HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS. 



involved. A list of the several authorities constituted, is 
herewith subjoined. 

The definite determination of a great geographical and 
historic fact, intimately interwoven with a pre-eminent 
physical feature of our own State, is strictly within the 
province and duty of this Society. The material facts and 
findings in this investigation only, can be presented in this 
paper, together with such references to the evidence on 
which the conclusions are based, as may be deemed 
material. 

One Capt. Willard Glazier, recently assumes to have 
made important discoveries at the head waters of the Missis- 
sippi ; that he discovered a lake, new and unknown before 
his brief visit to the Itascan region, in 1881 ; and that this 
lake, called after him " Glazier Lake," is the true and ulti- 
mate source of the great river. He thereafter proceeds to 
exalt himself, and petition geographical societies and map- 
makers, to honor him as the original discoverer of the true 
sources of the Mississippi, and so displace Schoolcraft and 
Nicollet from the high position and credit they had so long 
held in the field of American science and geography. The 
claim is a lofty and pretentious one, and should be examined 
with scrupulous care. To snatch the hard-earned laurels 
of Schoolcraft and Nicollet, upon whose work time has set 
the seal of more than a half a century of uncontested title. 
should not be sanctioned by the Minnesota Historical 
Society, upon a field so distinctly its own, unless the new 
claim rests upon testimony clear, conclusive and indisput- 
able. This Society owes it to the honored dead, and to the 
truth of geographical science in its own territory, to make 
a candid, unbiased, and if possible, a conclusive exposition 
of the whole matter. 

The most distant sources of the Mississippi river have 
their rise in an elevated table land in about N. latitude 47 ''. 
longitude 95 '', an area abounding in marshes, creeks and 
lakes. What one of these should be honored as the true 



THE SOURCES OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 5 

and principal source, and what explorer first discovered 
and made known such primal waters, are the questions 
involved. 

Says the American Encyclopedia, (Edition 1855) — "We 
follow Schoolcraft's map in giving the latitude and longitude 
of " Le Bush Lake " * (Itasca) as the extreme source of the 
Mississippi." The old geographers, map-makers and his- 
torians have thus followed Schoolcraft for fifty years, in ac- 
cepting the Itascan basin as the authentic source. The 
great discovery of Schoolcraft, July 12, 1832, was confirrn- 
ed by Jean N. Nicollet, a distinguished French scholar, 
July, 1836. Nicollet, with more time and research, found 
other inconsiderable affluents of Itasca, but holds that Itas- 
ca was the " principal basin " of the head waters of the 
Mississippi, and says with noble courtesy and loyalty to 
historic truths : " The honor of having first explored the 
sources of the Mississippi, and introduced a knowledge of 
them into physical geography, belongs to Mr. Schoolcraft 
and Lt. James Allen. I came only after these gentlemen ; 
but I may be permitted to claim some merit for having 
completed what was wanting for a full geographical 
knowledge of those sources." This is the modest testi- 
mony of a true and genuine scientist. Subsequently, at 
least a dozen other cultivated, scholarly and professional 
gentlemen, came after these savans, and at various periods, 
visited these head waters, and by their concurrent testimony, 
render certain the claims of these two eminent explorers to 
the honor of original discovery. And after them all, comes 
the government surveyors, (1875), and their work proves 
the almost absolute accuracy of the noble and early labors 
of Schoolcraft and Nicollet. 

Thus stands the general geographic record, until Capt. 
Glazier flings his glove into the arena in 1881, and chal- 
lenges existing and accepted history. Glazier appears to 
be a writer of war reminiscences, " in which he figures 

* Lac la Biche. 



MINNESOTA HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS. 



as the most conspicuous hero," and from what is known 
of him by his writings " he has been fairly denominated 
an " adventurer." * There is no evidence going to show 
that he is possessed of any quahfications whatever, either 
as a trained scholar or scientist, fitting him for the import- 
ant labor he had assumed. For he had taken it upon 
himself to review the work of men believed to be, in the 
highest sense, competent and skilled for geographical ex- 
ploration. They came modestly and conscientiously to 
their work, and years of reflection and consideration elapsed 
before either of them gave the results of their labors to the 
world. They performed their work, too, before a white 
man had yet settled in the territory of Minnesota, and when 
danger and privations were the inevitable accompaniments 
of such early undertakings. 

But Glazier appears upon the scene with dramatic bom- 
bast, and riding across the continent on horseback, in 1876, 
and musing upon " the uncertainty that existed as to its 
true source," resolves to settle the problem. At that very 
moment when his steed was slaking its thirst in the 
" Father of Waters," the government surveyors were plat- 
ting the official maps, which were the last links wanting to 
corroborate the validity of the work of Schoolcraft and 
Nicollet. In May 1881, Glazier organizes a pleasure excur- 
sion at St. Paul, and with his party starts on the cars 
" for exploration in the wilds of Minnesota." He travels 
155 miles by railroad to the city of Brainerd in one night, 
and doubtless in a sleeping car. All this through a region 
over which Nicollet had toiled weeks and months with all 
the privations incident to an untrodden wilderness. Thence 
he goes by a well established road to Leech Lake, and is 
the identical old government wagon road over which all 
the supplies were hauled for the North Pacific railroad. 
From this road, another leaves it at Fish Hook Lake and 

* See " Sword and Pen; " or, ventures and adventures of Willard Glazier, iic, 
by John Algernon Owens," Phlla., 1881. 



THE SOURCES OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 



runs direct to the Southeast arm of Lake Itasca. From this 
E. S. Teller cut a road through Town 143, R. 36 W. into 
the S. E. corner of Section 26, and terminates just in sight 
of Elk Lake. Over this road the U. S. Surveyor, Hall, 
took his supplies with a team, in 1875, when he went to 
survey those towns. 

The whole journey is not rendered perplexing b)' a 
single element of doubt. The pursuing of these routes 
along established roads and portages, with our Indians 
" as guides," if you please, and denominating it an " explora- 
tion," is so ludicrous to one familiar with the situation, as 
is the writer, that the whole thing is so supremely ridicu- 
lous, that, were it not for the seriousness of the situation, 
we would dismiss the matter as a joke, and Willard Glazier 
as merry fellow on a jolly outing. 

Arriving at the Itascan waters, he goes straight to 
" Schoolcraft's Island " in the bosom of Lake Itasca, and 
thence, without impediment or doubt, direct to a " new and 
unknown lake," and at once discovers the original, genu- 
ine, ultimate sources of the great river ! The directness 
and celerity of that sort of discovery and exploration, was 
never before recorded in serious history. He at once 
begins his work of distorting geography and confusing 
learned Societies. From "Schoolcraft's Island, Lake Itasca, 
July 22d, 1 88 1 ," he heralded to " Geographical Societies" and 
to the world, his pretensions and achievements. He subse- 
quently published an elaborate map and sent it to the 
President of the American Geographical Society, and pub- 
lished a minute account of the " Recent Discovery of the 
true source of the Mississippi River," illustrated with maps 
and engravings, in the " American Meteorological Journal." 
Also in a volume entitled the " Sword and Pen," there is 
reproduced the story of his discovery. He also sent a 
map, fortified with his own record of his alleged noble 
deed, to the " Royal Geographical Society of England." He 
has also industriously solicited the mention of his fame and 



MINNESOTA HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS. 



his lake into geographical text books and atlases over the 
country. He has left nothing undone to supplant School- 
craft and demolish Nicollet. That such Societies should 
have received, unquestioned, his brazen statements, and 
been duped by him, is what renders the preparation of this 
paper a necessity. 

The " lake" which Glazier claims to have " discovered," 
is a small meandered lake, which lies mainly in Sec. 22, 
Township No. 143 North, Range 36, West of the 5th 
Principal Meridian. The lake lies South of the South- 
west arm of Lake Itasca, and is only 350 feet distant from 
it. It contains about 250 acres and debouches into Itasca 
through a sinuous stream, 11 84 feet long, in a tamarack 
swamp. By his own description and map, this is " Glazier 
Lake," so-called, and there is no mistaking its identity, for 
there is no other. 

Was Glazier the original discoverer of this lake ? No ; 
no more than he was the discoverer of the sources of the 
Nile, or the mouth of the Mississippi. And even were it 
true that he did, its waters are not the ultimate sources of 
the Mississippi. This identical lake is found upon every 
map, from that of Nicollet, 1836 and '37, to that of the 
Government surveys, 1875. 

Now as to the testimony that he did not first discover it. 
It is so conclusive as to be crushing : 

I. In 1836-7, Nicollet deposited a map of the Itascan 
region in the office of Engineers, U. S. A. By order of 
the Senate, Feb. 16, 1841, this map and accompanying 
report, was published in Executive Document, No. 237, 2d 
Session, 26th Congress, in 1843, ^"^ ^ second edition pub- 
lished and enlarged, and can be found in any of the public 
libraries of the country. Nicollet simply sketches the lake 
more as a bay or estuary of Itasca. In that day, by higher 
water, which is shown by water-marks to have existed, the 
lake was certainly identical with Itasca, for the distance is 
now only insignificant. As illustrative of this point, the 



THE SOURCES OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 



Rev. J. R. Gilfillan, visiting them in 1881, the Indians 
called this identical " Elk Lake, " Gahikgutnag" which he 
says means, " water that juts off to one side, as a thumb 
from a hand." This would indicate that at no remote 
period they were one and the same lake, and that the 
channel between them gradually filled, possibly by the aid 
of beaver dams, and they became apparently separate 
bodies of water, though only a " stone's throw apart " at 
this time. The Indians from the earliest period, called the 
whole Itasca lake system, Oniosh-kos, from the form of an 
elk, and this protuberance was probably a part of the 
animal configuration. At any rate, it is there on Nicollet's 
official map, 1835, more nearly correct than it is on Glazier's 
map of 1884. 

2. In 1855, Henry R. Schoolcraft, yet alive, issued in 
Philadelphia, (Lippincott, Grambo & Co.,) his " Summary 
Narrative of an exploratory expedition to the sources of the 
Mississippi." With this last edition of his works, Mr. School- 
craft presents a revised map of all his discoveries, prepared 
by Capt. Seth Eastman, U. S. A., and it stands prefacing 
the title page, in which map this lake in controversy, is 
distinctly defined, together with " Nicollet Creek," with its 
three ponds, just precisely as described by Nicollet. So 
that the French scientist's work received, before he died, the 
high sanction and endorsement of Schoolcraft himself. 

3. A "Military Map" of the Northwest was made in 
1855-6, by the authority of John B. Floyd, then Secretary 
of War, prepared by Lt. G. K. Warren, of the Typograph- 
ical Engineers, one of the foremost geographers of his 
time, from explorations made by him, under directions of 
A. A. Humphrey, and the following, among other officers, 
were consulted in its preparation and are so cited on its 
margin: Capt. J. C. Fremont, Capt. John Pope, Gov. I. I. 
Stevens and Lt. James Allen. The greatest care was taken 
in its preparation. This map clearly and distinctly shows 
the lake in controversy, located just where the government 
surveys now place it. 



10 MINNESOTA HISTORIt'Al. COLLECflONS. 

In 1872, Julius Chambers, of the New York Herald, 
visited the Itascan region. He wrote a series of letters for 
the Herald in June and July of that year, and in one dated 
July 6th, he gives a full description of " Elk Lake," locating 
it where it really belongs, and naming it " Dolly Varden," 
alter his canoe. He describes it more accurately than does 
Capt. Glazier. He pronounces it at that time as a distinct 
lake from Itasca. This was seven years before Glazier was 
there. He made and published a map, showing the lake as 
represented in his letters, in the most distinct and positive 
manner, which map is here before us. 

But more material than all since the days of Nicollet, 
was the actual survey and platting of these townships 
embracing that entire region, including Itasca and all lakes 
and streams connected therewith, by authority of the 
government of the U. S., through the Surveyor General's 
office of the State of Minnesota, six years before Capt. 
Glazier's alleged discovery. The Surveyor General, J. H. 
Baker, was fully informed of the facts touching the land 
and water to be surveyed. The lumbermen of Minneapolis 
had assured him that they had actually " counted the pine 
trees " on this very lake. They told him of waters beyond 
that (Nicollet creek), flowing into the S. W. arm of Itasca, 
through which they could float their logs into this great 
lake. The contract of surveying Township 143 North, 
Range 36 West, where these waters are located, was let to 
Capt. E. S. Hall of St. Cloud, and in Oct. 1875, Hall made 
the survey. The map of the Township was duly made up 
in the Surveyor General's Office from Capt. Hall's care- 
fully written field notes, made upon the ground with proper 
instruments, and attention was especially directed to the 
lake in question. This Township map was certified to as 
correct by J. H. Baker, Surveyor General, Feb. 3d, 1876, 
and was by him transmitted to the General Land Office at 
Washington, and was officially approved by the Commis- 
sioner of the General Land Office and posted May 3d, 1876. 



THE SOURCES OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 11 

This map thenceforth became public property, accessible 
to all persons, and the supreme authority to all geographers 
and map-makers in the U. S. The lake in question was 
meandered, its outlines marked and four large meander 
posts set up, two on the East and two on the North, and 
distinctly visible when Capt. Glazier was there, for they 
were there and visible to travelers this present year. By 
authority of instructions from the Government of the U. S., 
Surveyor General Baker named the lake in question " Elk 
Lake," because he had been directed to retain the name 
given by the Indians to meander lakes, if any such 
name was in use or known at the time of the survey. 
Capt. Hall informed the Surveyor General that the Indian 
name was Elk Lake. This corresponded with the traditional 
name of the waters. It was therefore so marked on the 
plat, and approved by the authorities at Washington. 
What person had the right to change the name thus 
authoritatively given ? This official survey and record, 
that year, became a part of the great official map of the 
United States, issued under the certificate of the Land 
Commissioner at Washington, and the lake and name, 
" Elk Lake," could have been found there by any person 
upon the most casual examination. 

Now all these maps which are here cited, are among the 
papers of this Society, and with the exception of the 
Chambers' map, are distinctly official maps, not issued by 
private individuals, but by the authority of the State or 
General Government. They are open and accessible to all 
persons whomsoever. Was Capt. Glazier so excessively 
stupid, as not to consult all such existing official authorities, 
before starting on so important an undertaking? If so, 
what value can attach to the work of a man neglecting to 
properly equip himself for exploration? But it is in 
positive evidence, that previous to his issuing any map 
whatever, he was fully informed " that he was claiming 
what did not belong to him," and the government maps 



12 MINNESOTA HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS. 

were shown him with " Elk Lake " thereon.* But he 
defiantly persisted in his assumption. 

But there were still other sources of information, besides 
these, ready at hand, to throw light upon the subject, if 
they had been sought, or wanted. Charles Lanman alleges 
he was there in 1846; the Rev. Mr. Ayer and his son, 
Lyman Ayer, of Little Falls, Minnesota, was there in 1849; 
Wm. Bangs, of White Earth, Minn., was there in 1865; 
O. E. Garrison, for Census Bureau, [880; W. E. Neal, of 
Minneapolis, was there both in 1880 and in 1881 ; the Rev. 
J. A. Gilfillan, of White Earth, Minn., was there in May, 
1 881. The facts pertaining to most of the foregoing visits, 
could have been easily found in the Minnesota Historical 
Society, a proper place for any man to go, who desired 
intelligently to embark in such work. 

More than this, in so important a State document as the 
"Ninth Annual Report of the Geological and Natural His- 
tory Survey of Minnesota," 1880, p. 321, C. M. Terry, in a 
paper therein on the " Hydrology of Minnesota," describes 
"Elk Lake" as a tributary of Itasca, and with judicious 
and intelligent criticism adds : 

" It is rather a refinement of exactness to call Elk Lake, as some 
explorers have, the ultimate source of the Mississippi. Itasca Lake has 
been in possession of the honor so long that its claim ought not to be 
disputed, and certainly it is sufficiently minute, remote, and sylvan to 
answer all the requirements of an ideal source." 

This Mr. Terry, who was employed by State authority, 
was a Congregational clergyman and had made natural 
science a special study, and was a son-in-law and pupil of 
Dr. Edward Hitchcock, of Amherst College, the eminent 
geologist. No man in the Northwest was better equipped 
for a close study, and intelligent understanding, of the 
water systems of Minnesota, In that Report, issued by 

♦ G. Woolworth Colton, in American Canoeist, Nov. 1886: Mr. Colton made 
Glazier's map according to his dictation and gives remarlcable testimony as to 
the shamelessness of Glazier's iusistauce on perverting the facts. 



THE SOURCES OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 18 

the State, Mr. Glazier could have read the full account of 
the lake he pretends to have discovered. 

But this is not all, for the scientific world in Europe 
were also familiar with the results of Nicollet's explorations, 
and with the situation at Lake Itasca and vicinity. Dr. 
Peterman's " Stieler's Hand iVtlas," published by Justus 
Perthes, of the Gotha Institute of Geography, contains dis- 
tinctly this very lake. So that even in European geog- 
raphies, the redoubtable Glazier could have found the lake 
he so brazenly claims. 

Does not this record of facts show, that if Glazier had 
been in any respect whatever a student and a scientist, 
turn which ever way he might, he would have found the 
" lake " which has whetted his appetite for glory, or had 
he avoided the paths of the scholar and entered any " Real 
Estate Office" in St. Paul or Minneapolis, he would have 
found his lake distinctly marked and named " Elk Lake " 
on " Warner & Foote's Map," which is in such common use 
everywhere in the State. 

In the face of these facts, the bold assumption of the 
man Glazier, is without a parallel in the annals of geo- 
graphical history. His conduct is a total disregard of all 
the rules and dignities of a true scientist. Scientific knowl- 
edge has scarcely before been made the prey of a charla- 
tan. The measure of his astounding fraud, has not yet fully 
penetrated the public mind. To begin his absurd under- 
taking, he must thrust aside the work of the noble School- 
craft ; the more careful and exhaustive explorations of the 
great scientist, Nicollet ; to ignore the confirmatory e.xam- 
ination of nearh' a dozen explorers and travelers through a 
series of years ; and finalh' to set aside the work of the 
government surveyors, with the official map staring him 
full in the face ! Glazier's motto must be, " l'audact\ 
toujours Vmidace!' 

But in what manner did he conduct his alleged explora- 
tion ? With what element of scientific equipment was he 



;14 MINNESOTA HISTORICAL COLLBCTTIONS. 

clothed ? Without maps and documents throwing such 
light as may be upon the region to be explored ; without 
any instruments whatever, * always so necessary for the 
solution of a topographical problem, this geodetic cham- 
pion advances to a review of the work of the great Nicol- 
let! His own account is the authority for the facts of this 
most extraordinary exploration and discovery. He sights 
lake Itasca between three and four o'clock on July 2ist, 
1 88 1, and passed directly to Schoolcraft's Island, where he 
at once went into camp, and retiring early, he did not 
begin the exhaustive work of exploration until 8 a. m., of 
the 22d ; then putting his canoes into the water, and fol- 
lowing the guidance of an Indian, he goes directly to the 
waters to be discovered. He enters the lake, hoists a flag, 
fires a volley, they make speeches, as he alleges, and 
announces that he has completed the work begun by De 
Soto in 1 541 ! They immediately left the lake, and paddled 
back into Itasca, and at three o'clock in the afternoon of the 
same day began the descent of the river. t Thus in seven 
hours of the 22d of July, 1881, did Capt. Willard Glazier, 
by his account, accomplish more in the discovery of the 
sources of the Mississippi, than had been done from the 
time of De Soto, three hundred and forty years, till that 
memorable hour! Shades of Columbus, of Magellan, of 
De Soto, of Henry Hudson, of Nicollet ! To what a 
refinement of labor and economy of time, has Willard 
Glazier reduced the work of notable geographical explora- 
tions and discovery ! Think of the painstaking Nicollet, 
devoting days to toilsome labor, and nights to astronomi- 
cal observations! Think of the months of privation and 
danger endured by Schoolcraft and Nicollet, in the inter- 
ests of true science ; modest, loyal to their noble work, 
blazing an unknown path to the fountains of the Mis- 



* Those who accompanied him have so stated. 

t SeeGhizier's paper in ".Vraerican Met. Journal," pages 202, 322, 824, 325, 
327; "Sword and Pen," pages -477, 478. 



THE SOURCES OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 15 

sissippi, and waiting years of reflection and review, before 
giving a report to the world ! But fifty years later comes 
a stripling tourist, and in the midst of a civilized State, 
with a million of people, enters a surveyed township, 
blazed at every quarter section with the axe of the surveyor, 
and in an exploit of seven hours duration, endeavors to 
steal the well earned chaplets from bronzed brows of 
Schoolcraft and Nicollet, and strives to set them upon the 
head of a conscienceless " adventurer" instead ! 

There were full twenty miles of shore to be examined 
along the indentations and arms of Itasca, with its " Elk 
Lake " annex ; there were at least fifteen miles of streams, 
with their sinuosities to be explored. 

This point is of special importance, as it is made inferen- 
tially to appear in his writings, that he had explored some, 
at least, of these affluents. But Willard Glazier, being present 
in our Historical Society Rooms, Feb.7th, at four o'clock 
in the afternoon, confessed to Gen. Baker, in the presence 
of witnesses.* that he had not ascended any one of them, a 
fact which was known to this committee by other testimony. 
Glazier, thus by his own confession, contributed nothing 
whatever to geographical knowledge. He addressed himself 
to no work of a scientist. He did not find, or attempt to find 
Nicollet's creek, which is the main tributary of Itasca ; he 
did not even visit the chief tributary of Elk Lake itself. 
His maps of the lake are in themselves misleading, as he 
caused it to be made out of all proportion to its real area, 
and extravagant in its comparative relation to Itasca. He 
makes one map in 1884, and another, locating the lake four 
miles further South, by his own scale of miles, in 1886. 
The latter is to be considered a revision, and places the 
lake where it does not belong. In neither map is it cor- 
rect. His maps are therefore, in themselves, outrageously 
erroneous, and cannot be trusted for truth and fidelity. 



• Present, J. B. Cbaney and Geo. Hamilton. 



16 MINNESOTA HISTORICAL COLLBCTION8. 

Further than this, he distorts geography in the most 
reckless manner in his letter to the " Royal Geographical 
Society of England." In that communication, he locates 
his lake " not less than an entire degree of latitude South 
of Turtle Lake." This places it South of Crow Wing river 
and five miles North of the town , of Wadena ! People of 
Minnesota, how this man perverts the geography of your 
State! It is here to be observed that in this extraordinary 
letter to the Royal Society, the entire concluding paragraph 
is stolen bodily from Schoolcraft (Ed. 1834, page, 59), 
changing only the words of Schoolcraft " probably." into 
" not less than, " thus adding blunder to theft. Pursue this 
adventurer in any of his statements concerning this whole 
thing, and how marvellous are his palpable errors. In one 
place he fixes the level of the water of his lake 3 feet 
above those of Itasca ; in another at 7 feet. The facts are, 
from actual levels taken with instruments, the level of Elk 
Lake above Itascan waters, is just 13 inches. 

Again, Glazier claims that the water from a lakelet, he 
calls lake " Alice," (really lake Whipple, as Mr. Gilfillan 
has named it), empties into Elk Lake, when, as a topo- 
grapically determined fact, they debouch into the West arm 
of Itasca. Any searcher after geographical truth, in 
following this rattle-brained adventurer, would be led into 
hopeless mazes of error and confusion. 

His work in distorting the geography of our State, is 
simply incredible. He has issued and scattered broad- 
cast a map, entitled : " A map illustrative of Capt. Willard 
Glazier's voyage of exploration to the source of the Mis- 
sissippi river." Coming into Minnesota, a strolling tour- 
ist, he has, in this map, made a bold and outrageous 
attempt to change the names of our lakes in an area of 
country 320 square miles in extent, beginning just West of 
Leech Lake, thence across to the Itasca basin, then follow- 
ing the meanderings of the Mississippi river to Lake 
Winnebegoshish. In this territory he displaced the ancient 



THK SOURCKS OP THE MISSISSIPPI. 17 

Indian names, sacred to the people of Minnesota, and old in 
nomenclature as Leech Lake, Turtle Lake, Winnebegoshish 
or Cass Lake, coming down from immemorial times, and 
in their place substituted the following, changing as here 
noted : 

Kabekona River to Kabekanka. 

Kabekona Lake to Lake Garfield. 

Neway Lake to Lake George. 

Bowdich Lake to Lake Paine. 

Assawe Lake to Lake Hattie. 

Plantagenet Lake to Lake Hennepin. 

La Place River to Lake De Soto. 
He assumes to name a long chain of lakes and ponds 
lying between Leech Lake and La Place river, after his 
army associates ; those from La Place river to Itasca, he 
devotes to his relatives. 

Do the people of this State desire to have their ancient 
and honored nomenclature overthrown by such authority, 
and graft the Glazier family tree in lieu thereof? Does 
this Historical Society wish to admit this quack explorer's 
name on the map of this State, honored by such historic and 
treasured names as Cass, Le Sueur, Morrison, Olmstead, 
Sibley, McLeod, Kittson, Faribault, Ramsey, Rice, Marshall, 
Aitkin, Steele, Becker, Freeborn, Stevens, and other house- 
hold names, identified with early days and noble deeds ? 
It is in evidence that his lake is named after himself by 
collusion ; the lakelet in Sec. 27 after his daughter ; a lake 
near La Place river, after his brother, George ; another 
Hattie, after another of his family, and so on. This shows 
that he is consumed by egregious vanity, and an inordi- 
nate desire for notoriety. 

As we pursue his devious record, step by step, we find 
that not in one thing touching our geography, has he told 
the truth. He has perverted the facts of our early history ; 
told stories of imaginary adventures along our noble 
streams ; deluged the country with false and erroneous 



18 MINNESOTA HISTORICAL COLLEC?riONS. 

maps of the Northern portion of our State, and sought to 
rob us of ancient names. 

Nicollet's work was done years before a white man had 
permanently settled within the boundaries of our State. 
Glazier's was a jovial picnic within the limits of civili- 
zation. The settler had already taken up homesteads 
within sight of Elk Lake, years before Glazier was there. 
Your committee have before them an official letter from the 
Register of the Land Office at Crookston, showing the 
date of the first settlement, by homestead, to have been 
Aug. 22d, 1878, by Austin Sigimore, on Sec. 22, three 
years before the alleged advent of this tourist. 

His record of this imaginary exploration abounds in 
atrocious falsehoods. He dignified his geographic romance 
with beautiful speeches by his Indian guide, Ge-no-wa-ge- 
sic. Your committee are in receipt of a letter from the 
Rev. J. A. Gilfillan, which explodes even this element of 
wild romance into atoms. Read the following : 

White Earth, Minn., Jaiiiiarv 7th, 1667. 

Dk.\k Sir: — In accordance with your suggestion, I went a few days 
ago and saw Clie-no-wa-ge-sic, with whom I have long been well 
acquainted. I took with me Glazier's book " Sword and Pen," and read 
him from it his speech as reported on page 453, beginning " My Brother, 
etc.," and asked him how it was about that.? He said he never made the 
speech reported, " Never made any speech at all at Leech JLake, nothing 
■whatever.''' I then read him, on page 474, about his stepping to the 
front, assuming an oratorical attitude etc., and his speech following, 
beginning " My brother, I have come with you through many lakes and 
rivers to the head of the Father of Waters," and asked him how about that.' 
He said he never stood up and extended his arms; never said that no 
white man had yet seen the source of the great river, or that that Lake 
was it. The only thing there was to that, was that they, when the 
canoes arrived there, told Glazier that that was where he had planted 
corn, and that he had hunted all round those shores for many years. As 
to that speech on page 474, he only told him the above about planting 
corn and hunting; never told him that he had now got to the true head, 
for he (Che-no-wa-ge-sic), well knew that Lake Breck, the Elk Lake of 
the maps, was not the true head, but only the "place where the waters 
were gathered ; " that he knew that the true head was a little stream a mile 
or two to the West, running into the West arm of Lake Itasca, putting 



THE SOURCES OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 19 

his finger on the map and running it along the stream up to the little 
lake, Lake Whipple, at N. W. corner of Section 34, according to the 
Government Survey. " That Glazier never asked him to take him to 
the true head, and he well knew that he did not take him there. That 
Glazier only asked him if he could take him to that lake which the 
Indians call Pokegama, and that he replied that he could; but that he 
knew that that was not the true source; it was only a place where the 
waters were gathered." 

The above I have copied from my minutes of the interview with 
Che-no-wa-ge-sic, made immediately after. He is evidently an honest 
fellow and tells a true story. He did not know why I asked him; I did 
not let him know whether I was in Glazier's interest or otherwise, and 
he has heard nothing, I believe, of there being any dispute about the 
matter, and had no interest but to tell the truth. 

To the people of Minnesota who know Mr. Gilfillan, 
this will be conclusive. Glazier's other statements have been 
repudiated by Channing Paine, the only white person, 
except his brother George, who accompanied him, and 
now his noble Indian, his former Che-no-wa-ge-sic, he too 
has abandoned this falsifier of history, and left him alone 
in his fabric of lies. 

If it be urged by his friends, that, notwithstanding all 
that has been said, he was yet, as he claims, the first to 
demonstrate that there were other waters beyond Itasca, 
and that he showed those waters to be the lake indicated, 
there are plenty of answers to that. Chambers had so 
averred, in 1872, and called the lake "Dolly Varden " ; 
A. H. Siegfried, in Lippincott's Magazine, Aug. 1880, who 
developed that whole theory of sources ; and that Glazier 
knew of it, is shown by his plagiarizing boldly, as usual, 
from the magazine articles in question. 

If he still pushes the claim beyond, into his " Lake 
Alice," by debouching its waters into Elk Lake, as he has 
done, and there rests his claim, still the government surveys 
and careful subsequent scientific research, show that that 
lakelet empties, far away, into Itasca itself There is no 
longer a place, nor an evasion, where he can hide from the 
disgrace of his false and fraudulent pretensions. 

But the flagrant fraud, boldly attempted to be put upon 



20 MINNESOTA HISTORICAL COLLEXTTIONS. 

the world by this pretended discovery, is only one of 
Capt. Glazier's sins against the literary and scientific world. 
There is another, equally glaring, ignoble and contempti- 
ble in a scientist, which is kin to his rape of the lake. It 
serves further to illustrate the character of the man : 

In 1884, Capt. Glazier contributed to the "American 
Meteorological Journal," what purports to be an elaborate 
account of his " Recent Discovery of the True Sources of 
the Mississippi." In that account, he commits the boldest 
and most flagrant literary piracy to be found in the 
curiosities of all literature. Challenging and denying 
Schoolcraft's title to the discovery of the sources of the great 
river, he yet evidently had in his possession a copy of 
Schoolcraft's " Narrative of an Expedition to Lake Itasca 
in 1832," the same as published by Harper & Brothers, 1834, 
and if Glazier did not believe in the genuineness of 
Schoolcraft's discovery, it is patent that he had implicit 
faith in the fidelity of the careful Schoolcraft's descriptions 
of the Indians and of the localities. His plagiarisms are 
so bold, that Glazier has never presumed to deny the 
charge. "Stolen from Schoolcraft" should stand at the 
head of every printed column. These extraordinary 
coincidences of whole pages of identical language, were 
brought to light by the laborious researches of Henry D. 
narrower, an accomplished scholar and geographer, and 
published by Ivison, Blakeman. Taylor & Co., of New 
York, 1886, Mr. Harrower has so completely pilloried the 
unfortunate Glazier, that he must be solid brass if he can 
again lift his head among literary people. It must destroy 
confidence in all his literary performances. We have care- 
fully gone over Mr. Harrower's exhibits of parallel columns, 
comparing both with their originals, and are dazed at 
Glazier's audacity. The lapse of fifty years since School- 
craft wrote, had no effect upon Glazier's judgment in 
appropriating the work of the former. The material 
incidents of time, place and customs, as changed during 



THE SOURCES OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 21 

the time among the Pillager band of Indians, are out- 
rageously defied by Glazier. He sticks to Schoolcraft in 
spite of the results of a half century of schools, farming, 
and the civilizing effects of the government's care of these 
Indians. Their present condition is well known to these 
citizens of Minnesota, and Glazier's stolen account of them 
fifty years ago, as applicable to-day, is stupid beyond belief 
Schoolcraft's fine description of a noted chief of 1832, is 
taken bodily by this literary thief, and applied to White 
Cloud in 1 88 1. All this is like putting the girl of to-day 
in the clothes of her great-grandmother, and declaring it 
is the fashion of the hour. 

Even in his purported trip of discovery, he follows, with 
unreserved confidence, Schoolcraft's description of port- 
ages, trails, marshes, swamps, elevations, waters, &c. 
Identical also, is his copy of the meteorology, zoology 
and botany of the country. The track and the foot-prints 
of Schoolcraft are never missed by a hair's-breadth, by 
this faithful plagiarist of the great scientist. Schoolcraft's 
fidelity to nature was never so complimented. If Glazier 
was there at all, he saw only with Schoolcraft's eyes. 
The same Indians, the same customs, same dances, same 
sacrifices, same houses, same meals, same salt-cellar, same 
grass, same pond-lillies, same rushes, same canoes, same 
flocks of pigeons, same ripe strawberries, — everything alike ! 
Indeed, it was not necessary for Glazier to have visited 
Lake Itasca, if he ever did, for he could have copied the 
noble pages of Schoolcraft as well in his study, without 
the inconvenience of mosquitoes, or the expense of his 
journey. 

To crown his bold plagiarisms with the mede of per- 
fection. Glazier gives a table in "Am. Met. Journal," 1884, 
p. 328, " Meteorological Observations at the Head Waters 
of the Mississippi." It is true we have the evidence that 
he had no instruments with him, and took no observations 
whatever. But it is only a step from plagiarism, to lying. 



22 MINNESOTA HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS. 

In another volume of Schoolcraft, " Narrative of an Expe- 
dition to the Sources of the Mississippi in 1820," published 
in Albany, N. Y., 1821, are two meteorological tables, 
taken at Big Sandy Lake, pages 268 and 314. Glazier 
reproduces these identical tables as his own, as if taken 
" at the head waters of the Mississippi." 

We have the two tables before us, (Mr. Harrower's keen 
work,) and every date, and every barometrical observation, 
every hour of the notations, the character of each day and 
the direction of the wind, the very thunder, the rain-fall, 
all are identically the same, for every figure has been com- 
pared. They tally to a dot. But, just sixty-one years 
before, Aug. 2d, 1820, Schoolcraft broke his instrument 
and his observations ceased, at two p. m. of that day. 
Loyal and faithful ever, to the great man whose work he so 
religiously copied. Glazier ceases his barometrical record 
at just two p. M., Aug, 2d, 1881 ! ! 

Did Glazier think he was plundering neglected and for- 
gotten books? No American scholar will forget School- 
craft, no more than he will neglect Audubon, or bury 
Agassiz, and more and more as the Indian perishes, will 
Schoolcraft be recognized as authority and a classic. 
Glazier does not seek to conceal, or veil his thefts. A 
thief will seek to disguise his stolen horse by cutting off 
his tail, or clipping his hair ; but Glazier struts in all his 
borrowed plumage, oblivious to every chance of discovery 
and dead to every sense of shame. Though his rank 
plagiarisms have long been made public, he neither modifies 
his story nor abates his pretensions. It seems useless 
further to unmask and displume so stolid a man. But 
what the public are entitled to, is the truth of history and 
an honest geography. 



THE SOURCES OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 23 

A Critical Review. 

A critical review of the whole situation was made by 
Hopewell Clarke, a citizen of Minnesota, well known for his 
eminent fitness, experience and capacity for the work, who 
was engaged by Ivison, Blakeman, Taylor & Co., book 
publishers of the City of New York, to visit the sources of 
the Mississippi river for an accurate topographical survey 
of that region, with a purpose to carefully review the work 
of former explorers, and to determine any matters yet 
doubtful. Mr. Clark, after a full study of the case, with 
competent assistants, properly equipped with maps and 
instruments, did the work thoroughly in 1886. The results 
of his patient and exhaustive labors, which are before us, 
confirm the accuracy of the government surveys. It cer- 
tifies to the general correctness of Nicollet's report and 
maps. Unlike Glazier's, this expedition explored every 
bay and indentation of the Itascan waters, and followed 
every affluent to its ultimate source. They trod in the 
honored footsteps of the indefatigable Nicollet. Every 
level was taken with instruments, and every distance 
measured with a chain. They confirm a visit of Nicollet 
to Elk Lake, by his minute notations of its feeders, which 
could only be observed by actual exploration. They fix the 
location of Elk Lake precisely where the government sur- 
veyors located it ; and they demonstrate that Glazier both 
distorted its size, and placed it too far from the Itascan 
waters. He concurs fully with Nicollet, and other reliable 
explorers, that the longest, and by far the most important 
of the affluents of the Itascan basin, is the river, a creek 
which debouches into the Southwest arm of the lake, being 
sixteen feet wide, two and one half deep at its mouth, and 
the one most elevated in source being ninety-two feet 
above Itasca, while Elk Lake is but thirteen inches higher. 
This expedition confirms the statement by water-marks 
found, that Itasca waters were once higher, and Elk Lake 
once lower, than they now are, and that the latter, as here- 



24 MINNESOTA HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS. 

tofore stated, was doubtless but an estuary of Itasca at the 
time of Schoolcraft's and Nicollet's explorations. He 
fully confirms the general idea of Nicollet that " Lake 
Itasca is the first important reservoir and basin of all the 
springs that feed the head waters of the Mississippi river." 

They find the posts and blazings of the government 
surveyors still visible. Men of our own State, worthy 
to be trusted, they did their work without prejudice or 
bias, intent only on finding out the truth as to the primal 
waters of our great river. They confirm the fidelity of 
Schoolcraft and Nicollet to every essential fact, and renew, 
to those daring explorers, the honors they so nobly won. 

But why pursue this investigation further? Let this 
perverter of history and distorter of geography be dis- 
missed as a charlatan adventurer, with the contempt he 
so richly merits. 

CONCLUSIONS. 

After a most diligent and laborious examination of all 
the records, maps and documents bearing upon the case, 
which are now so complete and exhaustive as to be no 
longer liable to any material change, your committee, beg 
leave respectfully to submit the results of their findings : 

I. That Henry Rowe Schoolcraft, accompanied by Lt. 
James Allen, in a scientific expedition made by him, July 
1832, to the head waters of the Mississippi river, did 
discover, locate, delineate and map the general basin, 
which is the first great gathering place and reservoir of the 
head waters of that continental stream, and was b\- him 
named Lake Itasca, from the Latin words Veritas caput, 
the true head. Tliat he announced the discovery in a 
narrative written in a modest, honorable and distinct man- 
ner. That his companion, Lt. Allen, the topographer of 
the party, drew a map, which map was deposited, and is 
now, in the General Land Ofiice of the U. S., in the City 
of Washington, which map exhibits the substantial outlines 



THE SOURCES OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 25 

of Lake Itasca and its general surroundings. That School- 
craft's right to the original honor of this discovery can- 
not be rightfully questioned or challenged. 

2. That Jean N. Nicollet, a distinguished French scholar 
and explorer, did, in August 1836, visit and minutely ex- 
plore the same region in and about the Itascan basin. That 
his work exhibits all the care of a trained scientist, and 
that his map, deposited in the office of Engineers, U. S. A. 
1836-7, is so complete in detail, that all subsequent 
examinations and surveys have been but certificators of 
its general accuracy. That his report is clear, compre- 
hensive and scientific. 

That Nicollet did discover and explore to its sources, a 
creek, or river, whose primal springs are now found by 
government surveys, to be in Sec. 34, Town 143 N., R. 36 
W., 5th Principal Meridian, and 92 feet above the level of 
Lake Itasca; which creek, or river, has its rise at the foot 
hills of the Hauteur des Terres, which curve, like a crescent, 
around its sources, and this is the longest, as it is by far the 
largest, tributary of the Itasca basin. To use Nicollet's 
own language : " In obedience to the geographical rule, 
that the sources of a river are those that are most distant 
from its mouth, this creek is truly the infant Mississippi ; 
all others below, its feeders and tributaries." Then he 
modestly and courteously adds : 

" The honor of having first explored the sources of the 
Mississippi, and introduced a knowledge of them into 
physical geography, belongs to Mr. Schoolcraft and Lieu- 
tenant Allen. I come only after these gentlemen; but I 
may be permitted to claim some merit for having com- 
pleted what was wanting for a full geographical account 
of these sources. Moreover, I am, I believe, the first 
traveler, who has carried with him astronomical instru- 
ments, and put them to profitable account along the whole 
course of the Mississippi, from its mouth to its sources." 

This is the essence of the whole story. To these two 



26 MINNESOTA HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS. 

eminent scholars and scientists belong all the glory of 
the discovery of the primal sources of the Mississippi 
river. 

Your committee recommend that this chief tributary 
of Itasca, should be named " Nicollet River " in honor of 
its great discoverer, and that the lakelet in Section 27, be 
named Alpha, as significant of the absolute ultimate 
source. 

Recommended, that the name " Glazier Lake " be 
expunged from the lake in Sec. 22, of the same Town and 
Range, and that the name " Elk Lake " be continued as 
rightfully and appropriately named by the authority of the 
Government of the United States. 

That we earnestly and respectfully recommend all 
geographers, map-makers and historians, to follow the con- 
clusions herein reached, as final to a matter of geography 
within our own State. 

That we respectfully recommend that the present Legis- 
lature, by joint resolution, or otherwise, as to them may 
seem best, take such action as will fix and maintain the 
nomenclature of the waters as herein indicated. 



At the conclusion of the reading of Gen. Baker's Report, 
Ex-Gov. Alex. Ramsey moved that the report be adopted, 
and published by the Society, which motion prevailed. 

The following Resolutions were then read, and unani- 
mously adopted : 

Whereas, The members of this Society have listened to the reading 
of the report prepared by Gen. James Heaton Baker on the claims made 
by Capt. Willard Glazier, to the credit of having in 1881 "discovered 
the source of the Mississippi river," to-wit: A lake adjoining Lake 
Itasca, designated on the United States surveys as Elk Lake; therefore 
be it 

Resolved, That we hereby express as the deliberate judgment of 
this Society that the assertions and assumptions of said Glazier, in the 
matter named, are baseless and false — that he is in no sense whatever a 
"discoverer" or " explorer," the lake which he is now endeavoring to 
have called by his name having been originally visited and mapped by 
Schoolcraft in 1833 ; again carefully explored and scientifically examined 



THE SOURCES OP THE MISSISSIPPI. 27 

and described in official reports and maps by that accurate and conscien- 
tious scientist, Jean Nicholas Nicollet in 1836, and was in 1875 fully 
surveyed and mapped by the United Slates surveyors, and soon after 
claims and pre-emptions were filed on lands adjoining said lake. 

Resolved, That we assert our unqualified belief, based on the thorough 
and careful investigations of Nicollet, O. E. Garrison and others, and 
again, more recently, of those made bv Hopewell Clarke, that the lake 
which Capt. Glazier asserts is " the true source of the Mississippi river," 
is not such m reality, but that the real source of the river is Lake Itasca 
and its tributaries, arising in sections 27 and 28 of the township in 
which it is located. 

Resolved, That we feel amazed at the presumption and assurance 
displayed by Capt. Glazier; first, in hastily making such an audacious 
claim, based, at best upon an uncertain and doubtful foundation ; and 
again, in arrogantly heralding himself to the world as a discoverer, 
without first submitting his claims to some tribunal competent to pro- 
nounce on their merits and having his alleged discovery examined. 
And further, in deceiving geographical and scientific societies by send- 
ing them an account of his pretended discoveries, and causing to be 
published books and magazine articles in which he is praised and puffed 
in unmeasured terms and held up to the admiration of the country as 
one who had achieved some praiseworthy feat; also, in publishing maps 
in which the lake in question is represented as four times its real size 
and placed in a wrong position ; and lastly, in persuading, by persistent 
solicitations, map and school book publishers to place his name to " Elk 
Lake" and declare it "the source of the Mississippi river." 

Resolved, That the wholesale and unblushing plagiarisms by Capt. 
Glazier from the descriptions of Itasca in the writings of Schoolcraft, 
Siegfried and others, and of the meteorological tables in the former, 
tend to throw discredit on all his assertions and to render him unworthy 
of the respect and confidence which would be due to him, were he really 
the discoverer which he claims to be. 

Resolved, That we respectfully ask the legislature to pass, without 
delay, the bill recently introduced into the house by Mr. Donnelly, to 
fix irrevocably on the map of the State the names of the lakes and 
streams composing the Itasca sources of the Mississippi river, so that its 
earliest explorers be not robbed of their just laurels, and to remove 
temptations to adventurers in future to gain notoriety by attaching their 
names to said lakes. 

Resolved, That we call upon the various geographical, historical and 
other learned societies throughout the world to join with us in repudi- 
ating Glazier's claims, and ask them, in the spirit of truth and right, 
that if they have in their possession, maps with the lake in question so 
named, they erase Glazier's name from them and substitute therefor 
that of "Elk Lake" 



28 MINNESOTA HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS. 

Resolved, That our thanks are due, and are hereby tendered, to Gen. 
James H. Baker, for his able and exhaustive report; and also to H. D. 
Harrower, Esq., of New York, the Rev. J. A. Gilfillan of White Earth, 
Minn., and to Messrs. Alfred J. Hill, Hopewell Clarke and J. B. Chaney 
of St. Paul, for valuable aid rendered in the investigation of maps and 
documents relating to the question. 



Lb N '10 



THE 



SOURCES OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 



THEIR DISCOVERERS, REAL AND 
PRETENDED. 



A REPORT, 



HON. JAMES H. BAKER, 

Read before the Minnesota Historical Societv, 
February 8, 1887. 



MINNESOTA HISTORICAL COLLECTION, 
VOL. Vr. PART I. 



SAINT PAUL, MINN. 

Brown, Treacv & Co., Printeks, 

1 887. 



/ Al/ 



